ATM A Very Bad Day

["Janik Zikovsky" <jzikovsky@hotmail.com>]

Hello all.

This is the tale of my very bad day (today).

I was melting pitch for a pitch lap for my 9.25" mirror. First, I burnt 
myself when some boiling pitch splashed onto my hand (it still hurts and the 
pitch is still stuck there)

Then, while pouring my pitch lap, the rubber band holding the wax paper dam 
around the tool was too high and crushed the wax paper into the pitch - a 
messy unpleasant clean-up job.

Then i redid my pitch lap, aluminum foil dam this time, and it worked that 
time. I was pressing the mirror on the lap, turned around to get something 
heavy to put on the mirror. Whilst I was turned, the mirror slipped off the 
pitch, off the table and onto the cement floor. It's interesting to note 
that for a couple of seconds I was sure it was all a dream and I would wake 
up, and my mirror would be fine.

Obviously it wasn't a dream, and the result of the fall is a very large 
"chip" ("chip" does not do it justice) 1.25" wide by 3.5-4" long, on the 
edge. The rest of the mirror is fine.
The chip covers about 7-8% of the area of the mirror.

My mirror was fine ground and ready for polishing (I can take comfort in 
that it wasn't polished, figured, and aluminized...).

So here is my question : What do I do?

Do I :

a) Give up ATMing and become a tibetan monk?
b) Finish the mirror anyway, and use it knowing that i'm losing 8% of the 
light?
c) Finish the mirror, but plan the telescope mount big enough to fit a 10" 
mirror, that I could make later on?
d) Put the broken mirror somewhere visible as a cautionary example, and make 
another mirror?

Anybody with personal experience with this, i'd like to say :
"I feel your pain"
and ask what did you do?


thanks all,
Janik Zikovsky
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